Josh Kerr called his shot in March and delivered it in July, smashing Hicham El Guerrouj's longstanding mile world record. His coach Danny Mackey tells AW what it took to get there.

With 350m to go, Danny Mackey knew. His athlete was going to do it. After months of hard work, delving forensically into every detail, boldly telling the world what he was planning to do and publicly documenting almost every step in training, Josh Kerr was on his way to replacing Hicham El Guerrouj as the world record-holder in the mile. 

“I know him too well by how he moves, whether he looks good or looks bad, and I've seen both sides of it,” says Mackey, who was barely able to contain himself trackside as he watched the closing stages of what proved to be an extraordinary performance at the London Stadium on July 18. “When he passed at 350m I couldn't see the pace lights, but I was like ‘he’s going to do it’ so that 40 seconds or so was complete pandemonium. That moment is something I will never forget.” 

The sights, the sounds and the spectacular success of that 3:42.66 (the previous mark was 3:43.13) is something that will take some time to process, however. The athletics world moves fast and, no sooner had Kerr crossed the line than there were media to speak to, sponsors to meet with, celebrations to be had and a plane for Mackey to catch. As head coach of the US-based Brooks Beasts team, there were a number of athletes from the group who needed him as they competed at the US Championships in New York.  

When the 45-year-old speaks with AW, it is three days after Kerr’s triumph. Mackey admits he hasn’t slept in four. He also admits that he wouldn’t be against the idea of the world stopping for just a moment, to let the magnitude of Kerr’s achievement sink in a little. Human nature dictates that everyone wants to know what’s next – and Kerr himself has already made noises about going after the world 1500m record of 3:26.00, another mark set by El Guerrouj, later in the summer. 

But there is the recovery from this world record and the small matter of the Commonwealth Games to negotiate. For Kerr’s coach, it would be nice to just take a breath.

“For sure,” says Mackey when asked if he’d like a chance to stop and think about it all. “And the biggest reason why is not so I can enjoy it. It's more to be protective of Josh. I think, if I've done a few things well with him, one is that I've really been protective of his energy and his time and his mind space and stuff like that. 

“I think he's got some equally big performances ahead of him over the next couple years, but I don't want to push it. We've never been greedy, and we're going to get through the Commonwealth Games. He might come off that and be like ‘I'm cooked’. So I don't know what we'll do. I've been asked if we'll go for the 1500m world record at Zurich [on August 27]

and I don't know. If we hadn’t had the Commonwealth Games and we could just go again in two to three weeks, I think he can run 3:25. But, you know, stretching it past that would be tough because he's flying pretty close to the sun.”

All of the above, though, are good problems to have. Kerr is the centre of attention because of his success. And he has brought it all upon himself. It was back in the autumn that the 28-year-old pitched the concept of “Project 222” to his sponsors at Brooks. The aim would be to run the mile in 3:42 – or 222 seconds – and thus overtake the world record that had stood since 1999.

The 2023 world 1500m champion would, unusually, make the announcement – or “call his shot” – early. Very early. Right after competing at the World Indoor Championships in March.

“We’d talked about [the record] a couple of times over the last few years, so when he was pitching Brooks on Project 222 and said, ‘I want to announce it right after I win the World Indoors’, I was like ‘cool’,” says Mackey. “I understood the magnitude of that, but I didn't realise how hard that was going to be until we were in it. The last four months have been hard. There was so much stuff we had to do from a media standpoint, so much product testing, apparel testing, Brooks' demands, other sponsors' demands.

“But that's what he wanted to do and I think, for the sport, it’s awesome that he called the shot. For Brooks Beasts, it's amazing that he called the shot because he got so much hype and lead-up into it, which made it so much more amazing that he did it. The fans that went there, the people that tuned in, they knew ahead of time [what he was trying to do]. He does really care about the sport, the team and the brand, and I think the whole thing has elevated it. So I do like that he did that.”

By laying his cards out on the table so far in advance, Kerr certainly wasn’t taking the easy route. It was far from simple during the race itself, either, given that the pacers he and Mackey had hoped would help until around the 1100m-1200m mark faded with around 600m to go. But, roared on by a crowd that had fully bought into the project, too, the two-time world indoor gold medallist strode to his goal. 

“Josh, to me, signified that you don't have to take the shortcut,” says Mackey. “You can do things the hard way. Not everybody has the ability Josh has but you could be the best version of yourself beyond what you think you're capable of, and I think he’s a model and an inspiration for people trying to lose weight, to a kid trying to win a state title and dreaming of being all-state to a college athlete trying to be an all-American – whatever your goal is.

‘If that guy can do it, I can do what I'm trying to do’. So I have a lot of humility and gratitude to be able to work with somebody like that.”

With that in mind, are there any features of what Kerr does that could be applied to the amateur athlete who is also going in search of improvement? Not everyone can afford to have their own chef, or call on the services provided by a major shoe brand, but is there a lesson that anyone could take away from all of this? 

“Putting yourself in an environment where you're supported is something that a club runner could do,” says Mackey. “Don't isolate yourself. Get a coach, get training partners, get people around you that you think are capable to help you. When you have your goals, tell those people and help them map out how you want to get there. Everything else that Josh does, it’s not really applicable, but I think anybody could do that.”

A noticeable feature of Kerr’s post-race celebrations was that he shared the moment with so many people. He has worked with Mackey, and Brooks, for eight-and-a-half years now and there is a large team behind the athlete. But, as the coach points out, there is only one person who can actually get the job done. 

“The athlete is the one in the arena,” he says. “I'm a really big Mixed Martial Arts and combat sports fan and me and Josh talked about ‘locking the cage behind him’, as he was going into battle. When he went out and did that, yes, he had a lot of support, but it was still him who had to do it, which I think is the hardest part of the job.”

For Mackey, this represents another notable achievement in his coaching career but it has not come easy for him, either. He has worked with Brooks for almost 15 years but, in the early days, he applied “to 217 NCAA jobs, got zero offers and one interview”. 

“I've been told my whole life that I’m not a good enough coach, that I'm not smart enough, [people] don't want me to work for them, whatever it is. But, through that, I've had this belief that with the human body, if you do things the right way, you put health first and you create a team around an athlete – an environment where they're happy, they feel fulfilled, that they're willing to push themselves to levels that you know seem unachievable [then you can achieve].”

He adds: “I don't think I quite yet know what [the world record] means. People told me that when Josh won his first medal [Olympic 1500m bronze] in 2021, that my life would change. It didn't. I'm a pretty low-profile guy. Maybe this means other athletes that are really talented will give me the privilege of coaching them. That would be great. That's what I hope happens from this. Not that I can replicate  Josh, but I want to do this for a lot longer, and I believe in how I do things, and I believe in the people that work with me, so I hope that we can continue this.”